Monday, 23 March 2009

Spring update

"the Swiss called them 'Schwindlekraut' and used the rootes for strengthening of the head, so when they are on top of places that are high 'giddiness' and swimming of the 'braine' may not affect them"Gerard on the medicinal use of Auriculas

Volunteering in the Pleasance

Sharon, one of our volunteers, has very kindly written a short piece on her work in the garden.

If you'd like to help out please either leave a comment on this item or call in at the garden and speak to our gardener, who will be happy to pass on your details to the Trust.

We've also added some photographs of pieces work that have been done since the previous post, they include planting:

- a new laburnum tree to replace one of the originals that unfortunately died.

- the first phase of the cottage garden with over twenty types of period appropriate plant(a full planting list will be added in due course).

- the orchard with fruit and nut trees

- three new yews to give a run of six at the edge of the orchard, leading down to the Nungate Bridge gate.

Volunteering at St Mary’s Pleasance.

We found St Mary’s Pleasance by chance one day, not long after we had moved to Haddington, on one of our walks of exploration around the town. It was like finding a secret garden – a description many people use when they are talking about this gem. We were accustomed at that point to tantalising glimpses of lovely gardens over stone walls all around the town, but we never expected that we would have the good fortune to be able to venture into one of these oases.

It then became a Sunday walk – down by the river and into the garden, to sit for a few minutes up on top of the mound and listen to the birds and the music fromSt Mary’s. As the spring and summer arrived, our daily walk took us through the garden if it was still open after we had come home from work. With the autumn came the apples, pears and mulberries and we gathered the windfall on our Sunday walk for crumbles and pies in the afternoon.

We loved visiting, but we wanted to be able to give something back, to help in some way. We didn’t know at that point that the gardener was only there during the week, all we knew was that we had it to ourselves.

Roger Kirby, Chairman of the Trustees, wrote an article about the garden in the annual Council newsletter in January of this year. In it, he spoke about the intention to have a community orchard and asked for volunteers to help out. We contacted him straight away and offered our services, such as they are. We both work full-time, but Roger found a time that worked well for everyone and now we spend our Saturday mornings, weather permitting, helping out with whatever tasks are most urgent.

We had very little gardening experience, but there is a wealth of gardening expertise to learn from. We have dug, weeded, chopped, raked, planted bulbs and trees – every day brings a new task and something new to learn. It is wonderful to be out in the fresh air and to think that, this year, we will have earned our crumbles and pies – and made great friends along the way!